Choose compatible fittings, plan containment and access, and distinguish cover repairs from damaged gas-carrying tubing.
Corrugated stainless steel tubing (CSST) is shaped during installation to form a fixed gas-pipe route. Its fittings, cover and installation method work as a system. The examples here concern TracPipe and TracPipeCC; use the instructions for the actual product and work within the competence needed for the task.
Flexible during installation, fixed in service
Being easy to bend does not make this tubing a flexible appliance hose. TracPipe is not intended for repeated movement or vibration. A cooker that moves for cleaning needs a suitable flexible appliance connection. Extra length or a larger corrugated pipe does not change that requirement.
Use fittings that the tubing manufacturer supplies or specifies. Matching threads and size labels are insufficient, and a single successful leak test cannot establish an approved combination. Use the specified transition fitting when connecting to copper or steel.
At a meter that is securely restrained, the instructions permit direct connection. Where the meter is not securely restrained, first provide at least 600 mm of securely fixed rigid outlet pipework, then change to TracPipe or TracPipeCC. The connection must not leave the meter or its joints carrying unsuitable loads.
Know which surface makes the seal
An AutoFlare connection creates its metal sealing seat as the fitting is tightened correctly. Keep jointing compound off its internal sealing components. This is separate from sealing a threaded transition elsewhere in the assembly.
Prepare the tube end with the appropriate cutter, placing the cut in the valley between neighbouring corrugations. Excessive cutter pressure can flatten the metal. Follow the complete assembly instructions, including the required end preparation and tightening; a revision description is not the full fitting procedure.
For comparison, a compression fitting on copper seals through the olive pressing against the pipe and fitting body. The nut thread supplies force to compress that olive. Wrapping the olive with PTFE tape interferes with its intended sealing contact.
Plan the route before concealment
Check the whole proposed route for cables, junction boxes and other services before pulling tubing through a suspended floor. Take care with nails and screws when replacing the floorboards, and mark the pipe position where possible.
Keep the tubing out of structural floor slabs and structural toppings. Suitable non-structural screeds, ducts and voids have their own installation conditions; access for future work must not require weakening the building. Preserve fire separation and the other required building protections.
Continuous tubing and mechanical fittings have different concealment rules. The instructions allow specified buried tubing arrangements, but AutoFlare fittings must remain accessible. An inspection space needs usable access. Extra wrapping, sand around a fitting or a record of its buried position does not make an inaccessible joint acceptable.
Before screed or plaster hides the run, inspect the complete cover both visually and by touch. Find and repair damage along its length, including surfaces that are difficult to see. Looking at the ends or testing gas tightness alone will not establish that the protective cover is intact.
Containment and wall crossings
TracPipeCC has a second outer cover with channels that lead any escape towards safe, ventilated locations at the ends. Keep that containment route effective and use the prescribed termination arrangement. It does not regulate the gas pressure and is not a route for boiler condensate or combustion air.
The secondary cover does not replace a suitable sleeve through a wall or floor. Follow the penetration detail as well as the requirements for the run through the void. A wall sleeve protects the crossing; secondary containment deals with an escape along the enclosed route.
Keep corrosion protection effective
Complete soldering on adjoining copper and clean off the flux before connecting it to the stainless tubing. Prevent flux or solder reaching the corrugated pipe, inside or outside. Hiding residue under a cover leaves the contamination in place.
For cover repairs and exposed steel at the fitting, use the specified TracPipe self-amalgamating silicone tape. Ordinary electrical or grease-impregnated tapes can contain chlorides that attack stainless steel. Apply the additional protection after satisfactory tightness testing as instructed, using the specified wrapping method.
Keep TracPipe and AutoFlare fittings outside an all-fuel fireplace opening. Soot and debris there can cause corrosion. Make the final connection into the firebox using suitable protected pipework.
Decide whether the cover or the metal is damaged
- Cover damage with sound tubing: restore the protective cover using the specified tape.
- A puncture, or a permanent crease or kink after excessive bending: replace the damaged tubing using a permitted arrangement. Tape cannot repair a gas-carrying metal wall, and a tightness result does not cancel the replacement criterion.
- A short, readily removable run: replacing the complete length is preferred because a splice adds further joints. Complete the required examination and testing after the work.
Assess other dents or crushing against the product’s damage criteria. Do not treat every mark as a puncture or assume that every dent can be straightened safely.
Size the actual pipe
Use the manufacturer’s flow data for the corrugated section, with the correct fuel and pressure conditions. Similar nominal sizes in copper, another CSST brand and this product do not establish equal capacity. Check what bends and end fittings the chosen table already includes before adding further allowances. Assess each complete meter-to-appliance route under its design demand.